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Leinbach Expanding

Tulsa asset management firm the Leinbach Company expands — most recently with the purchase and renovation of the 224-unit Spring House Apartments in Lexington, Ky., and takeover of the 212-unit The Hunt Apartments in Oklahoma City.Leinbach said his firm’s constant expansion has been due to sticking with a few business principals, and that his best luck has come buying properties from large management companies that have a single asset left in a given market.“Running a single asset in Kentucky could be tedious,” he said. But the Leinbach Co. already had two complexes (Breckinridge Court and the Brandywine Apartments) and a quality staff in the area, and so it ends up paying a heavily discounted price for the property.“We happened to be looking for another piece of property in Kentucky at the time, and it ended up working out for everyone involved,” Leinbach said.The second part of Leinbach’s strategy is to focus his business in second-tier markets, cities limited in scope but with solid projected growth. Leinbach sites as an example Lexington, with a population roughly the size of Tulsa and an area college (University of Kentucky) with an aggressive growth plan. The company also operates in Kingston, N.Y. (pop. 24,000), Jupiter, Fla. (pop. 40,000), Tulsa (pop. 350,000) and Oklahoma City (pop. 550,000).The key in smaller markets is stable demand, he said.“In some big cities, you had so much building that you now have what’s called shadow vacancy, which is an oversupply of housing,” Leinbach said. “Tulsa doesn’t have that, nor do these smaller cities.”Finally, it’s all about quality.“All the properties we have are what I call A-minus and B-plus properties,” Leinbach said. “Because we have nice properties, we can require pristine credit, which usually means they will be better taken care of. Every time I have made an exception to that, it has come back to haunt me.” ?′